As with the other automakers in this test, Ford gives you the top-spec interi­or with all the trimmings when you go electric, a partial salve for the extra money you’re spending. With its clean, aero-swept styling and crouched stance, the Focus is laden with buttons, screens, and thumb controls set in soft-touch plastics and other quality materials. Perforated dots in the seat leather evoke coral reefs as seen from space. The cabin is quiet at all times, even at freeway speeds. You can fit three people in the back seat.

This Tesla Model S for the rest of us only suffers from high power consumption, as its battery gushes juice to move the Focus’s 3632 pounds. Its electron appetite ranked at the top with the Fiat, though the pack’s relatively large size, at 23.0 kWh, still ekes out a comparatively decent 64-mile range. However, if you’re profligate with the ­climate control, the range can drop considerably. Sitting still, we dialed up the auto temperature control a few degrees, and the indicated range immediately dropped 10 miles. No other car makes the energy cost of our modern comforts so apparent.

The most natural-feeling of our EVs, the Focus delivers a smooth if somewhat muted rush of torque and has excellent brakes. It stays flat through corners and cuts a clean freeway groove with an unflustered ride. No doubt because of its bulk, or the fact that it runs on the widest tires, it was second-slowest to 60 mph. At low speeds, such as when you’re trolling through a pedestrian-heavy area, you can catch the motor clunking between its drive and regen modes, but otherwise the Focus feels solid and well integrated.

Ford packages its EV-related data mostly in the instrument cluster, into two high-res screens surrounding the speedometer that are manipulated with the steering-wheel buttons and will dazzle you with info. We spent 20 minutes exploring the system’s many pages, which read like a PowerPoint presentation from the local electric utility. A “brake coach” helps you stretch the range if you follow it closely, while another screen will populate with electronic “butterflies” according to how ecologically you drive.

You can smirk at such gimmicks—one editor called the butterflies “dumb”—but driving an electric car is a game of managing a limited energy supply, and visual aids are useful. Geez, who hates a butterfly? Less handy is the MyFord Touch system, which requires a couple of steps of menu-drilling to get it to show the nearest charging stations.

What the Focus Electric really does best is give you a reason to go test drive the top-of-the-line gas-burning Focus.

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